TAMPA - If there's one upshot from the latest ranking of the Tampa area's economy against those of its peer cities, it's this: Stagnant is the new good.

On Tuesday, the Tampa Bay Partnership, a regional economic development group, released its economic scorecard for fall 2009. The twice-yearly scorecard measures the Tampa area against five large metro areas in the South: Atlanta, Dallas, Jacksonville, and Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte, N.C.

Overall, the Tampa area finished third out of the six economies, which was the same score it got on the previous scorecard, in spring 2009. Perennial champ Raleigh-Durham finished first again, propelled by its educated work force and high-paying jobs. Atlanta finished last, dragged down by a loss of 140,500 jobs from fall 2008 through fall 2009.

During a news conference Tuesday, Chris Tonkovic, the partnership's business intelligence officer, said economic figures suggest the Tampa area's economy stagnated from spring through fall 2009. In this environment, that's not so bad, he said.

Stuart Rogel, the partnership's chief executive, suggested, "We are at the bottom of a very long downturn."

The economic scorecard measures the six regional economies on six economic indicators. For example, the Tampa area scored last in the housing category - perhaps to be expected. It was hurt by its big drop-off in housing permits. Between the third quarter of 2008 and the same period in 2009, housing permits fell 51 percent in the Tampa area.

The Tampa area also has the least affordable apartments, when comparing rents with the Tampa area's median household income.

Not known for its high-tech industries, the Tampa area also suffered in the scorecard's innovation category, finishing fifth. It was dragged down, in part, by the relatively few patents issued to Tampa area individuals or businesses. The Tampa area received 0.58 patents per 10,000 workers in the third quarter of 2009. By comparison, Raleigh-Durham received 4.25 patents per 10,000 workers, the data show.

The Tampa area was the only one to log an increase in average wages between the first quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009, the latest period for which information was available. Over that year, the Tampa area's average wages rose 0.38 percent and every other city saw its wages fall.